Ireland, Reading and Cultural Nationalism, 1790–1930
Bringing the Nation to Book

Examination of literacy and reading habits in nineteenth-century Ireland and implications for an emerging cultural nationalism.

Andrew Murphy (Author)

9781107133563, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 26 October 2017

262 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 1.8 cm, 0.52 kg

'The book's greatest pleasures lie in Murphy's close readings of specific texts … [it] demonstrates how and why Irish nationalists and their adversaries manipulated, fetishized, feared, and contested the printed word, and, as such, offers insights for studies of libraries and reading in other colonial and postcolonial scenarios.' Daphne Dyer Wolf, Libraries: Culture, History, and Society

The emergence of an Irish 'common reader' in the nineteenth century had significant implications for the evolution of Irish cultural nationalism. The rise of literacy rates prompted a cultural crisis, with nationalists fearing that the beneficiaries of mass education were being drawn to populist publications emanating from London which were having the effect of eroding Irish identity and corrupting Irish morals. This fear prompted an intensification of cultural nationalist activity at the turn of the century. Andrew Murphy's study, which includes a chapter on W. B. Yeats and the Irish reader, moves freely between historical and literary analysis, and demonstrates how a developing sense of cultural crisis served as an engine for the Irish literary revival. Examining responses to Irish reading habits advanced by a wide range of cultural commentators, Murphy provides a nuanced discussion of theories of nationalism and examines attempts finally to control reading habits through the introduction of censorship.

Introduction
1. Textual nationalism and oral culture
2. Education and the rise of literacy
3. W. B. Yeats and the Irish reader
4. Contending textualities
5. Censorship
Afterword: Joycean transformations
Appendix: W. B. Yeats' Irish canon.

Subject Areas: Sociology & anthropology [JH], Society & culture: general [JF], History: specific events & topics [HBT], Regional & national history [HBJ], Interdisciplinary studies [GT], Classic fiction [pre c 1945 FC], Literary studies: plays & playwrights [DSG], Literary theory [DSA], Literature: history & criticism [DS]